2. The solar system got its name from the
ancient romans ‘sol’ which means anything to do
with the sun. therefore the solar system is made
up of eight planets and their satellites, asteroids,
moons, meteoroids, gases and dust.
3. The Solar System
The sun is a glowing ball of burning gases. It
gives us heat, light and provides energy.
Planets and other objects do not shoot of in
space because of the pull of gravity exerted
by the sun.
The movement that the planets makes around
the sun is called a revolution.
It is consisted of planets; the inner and outer
planets which are listed below:
4. The Inner Planets
These are also called terrestrial planets; because they
contain Earth like figures. These include;
1. Mercury
2. Venus
3. Earth
4. Mars
These planets contain similar figures;
They are the closet to the sun
Rocky and dense
They have few moons
No rings
6. MERCURY
Mercury is the first planet in the solar
system. It takes 88 Earth days to revolve
around the sun.
This is a rocky planet. It’s
surface/exosphere is composed mostly of
oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium and
potassium. Therefore no evidence for life
has been found.
Standing on Mercury surface at its closest
point to the sun.
8. VENUS
This planet is always referred to as the
morning star to planet Earth because it is the
brightest planet in the solar system due its
reflective surface- it is covered in clouds.
Therefore, it is the hottest with temperature
ranged at 880 degree F.
It is the only planet that rotates
anticlockwise.
Venus also take 225 Earth days to make a
complete revolution.
10. Earth
This the third planet from the sun, where
life forms are found possible to live
because;
It’s the only planet that has water and in
the three stages: solid, liquid and gas.
A greenhouse effect that regulate the
temperature and is essential for survival,
Takes 365 ½ days to revolve around the
sun. Contains only 1 moon/satellite,
Its inner core is made up of solid with a
molten outer core that produce a
magnetic field.
12. Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the
second smallest planet in the solar system.
Named after the Roman Catholic God of war,
it is often described as the ‘red planet’
because the iron oxide prevalent on its
surface gives it a reddish appearance.
Mars takes 687 days to orbit the sun. The
planet has two moon which are called Phobos
and Deimos.
13. The Outer planets
The next four planets, are also referred to as
the Jovian planets:
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
They are the Jovian planets because they have
similar figure like Jupiter:
They are far from the sun
Have rings
Have a lot of satellites
Gasesous
15. Jupiter
The fifth planet from the sun and the largest in
the solar system which;
Is referred to as a gaseous giant no solid
surface, contains a liquid centre and small
solid core.
Has 63 natural satellite but only four great
ones, looks like a disc covered with bands of
blue, brown, pink, red, orange and yellow.
Takes 12 Earth years to revolve around the
sun.
17. Saturn
Saturn is the second-largest planet in the solar system and
has majestic rings surrounding it.
Saturn's seven rings they are flat and lie inside one
another. They are made of billions of ice covered particles
so they are not solid bodies they are orbiting debris.
Ice reflects light, that is why they are so bright and we
can see them through a regular telescope from Earth.
Saturn's density is lighter than water (0.7) which means if
you had a body of water big enough to hold it, it would
float!
It's composition is 73% Hydrogen and 26% Helium and 1%
another which is similar to both Jupiter and the sun.
19. Uranus
Uranus was the first planet found with the aid
of a telescope. It is also the seventh planet
away from the sun.
It takes 84 earth years to complete an orbit.
Unlike the other planets except Venus and
Uranus rotates from east to west.
This planet experience extreme variation in
sunlight during each 20 year long season.
Uranus is one of the ice giant of the outer
solar system.
21. Neptune
Neptune, the 8th planet from the sun, is
named from an ancient Roman sea god, and is
a stormy blue planet.
It was actually seen for the first time through
a telescope in 1846. Neptune's period of
revolution is 165 years.
Like Uranus, Neptune is distinctly colour light
blue, from the CH4 in its atmosphere. It is
said to be the twin of Uranus. They have
similar features and they are the same size.
